Arrest made in hit-and-run of walker

Man, 33, charged; woman struck near Sanford is critical

Dec. 18, 2013

Police investigate Monday at the scene of a hit-and-run accident on Grange Avenue near 21st Street on the east side of the Sanford campus in central Sioux Falls. Reva Rezac, 58, was in critical condition Tuesday. Mark S. Morris, 33, was arrested in connection with the accident. / Nick Lowrey / Argus Leader

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A Sioux Falls man was arrested on felony hit-and-run charges Tuesday, accused of leaving the scene after seriously injuring a woman who was walking to work the previous morning.

Mark S. Morris, 33, faces up to two years in prison and driver license revocation if convicted.

The collision Monday morning on Grange Avenue, on the east side of Sanford USD Medical Center in central Sioux Falls, injured Reva Rezac, a 58-year-old hospital employee.

Rezac remained in critical condition Tuesday.

Police Lt. Jerome Miller said media reports with a description of the damaged car caught the attention of a “watchful citizen” who reported seeing a 2004 white Honda Civic with front-end damage Tuesday in the 1000 block of North Minnesota Avenue.

Police found Morris was the owner and arrested him nearby on a charge of leaving the scene of an injury accident.

Morris sped away after hitting Rezac while she was crossing the street with another woman at 21st Street and Grange, police said.

Police spokesman Sam Clemens said Rezac was thrown into the air after the collision, and that witnesses said the vehicle was going faster than the posted speed limit of 30 mph.

Lt. Galen Smidt said the woman who had crossed the street ahead of Rezac said she saw headlights coming toward her but thought she had enough time to cross the street. When she reached the other side, she heard a thump and saw the victim in the air.

The two women were crossing west across Grange between a set of parking lots 50 yards from a crosswalk.

Police initially said the vehicle would have had front-end damage to the passenger side and possibly a cracked windshield.

“It was pretty obvious that the driver would have known that they hit somebody,” Clemens said Monday.

Police asked Sioux Falls body shops to watch for the suspect vehicle.

Before an in-town body shop will work on a vehicle, it needs to have a police red tag, Clemens said, which lets the shop know police are aware of the crash and that it was not a hit-and-run.